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08 December 2012

Is A College Degree Really Worth $300 Per Credit Hour?

No. There's a better way.

The real purposes of college are grimy and mean: to subsidize with tax dollars a well-heeled army of pompous, lazy oafs, to create the illusion of learning for hapless young minds who seek the credentialing of wisdom and knowledge, and -- most crucially -- to trick American taxpayers into funding the indoctrination of millions of brainwashed cadres who provide indispensable shock troops for the toxin of leftism.

And . . .

Why in the world do state governments not reform academia by making self-guided, cheap, validated, and politically neutral education the goal? As a start, except for specialized courses of study in a few areas, there is no longer any need for colleges at all.

And . . .

Our information society is bursting at the seams with different ways to learn, and often these can teach in ways outside the capabilities of college professors (or, more likely, their bored and sullen graduate assistants). Why on earth are we paying for the modern equivalent of quill pens or buggy whips with tax dollars? If the goal is for people to learn, then government should be supporting learning, not some hoary and moldy version of same.

The goal should be to learn. "Educating" today includes, indoctrinating. Time to end it. We now have the technology to do so. Homeschoolers have been leading the way in education reform for several decades. Welcome to the party. More here. The honest and informed among us know that Big Education has become, largely, a massive indoctrination camp.Let's end it.

8 comments:

D. Snider
said...

I don't see the difference between a college that, according to you, indoctrinates children to a preconceived belief system and a church that does exactly the same thing. It's all brainwashing in support of an agenda. You however seem to support one version and chastise the other. Therefore while your handing out the hypocrite cards be sure to save one for yourself.

DS - your analogy is flawed. There's a huge difference. First of all, churches are explicitly supposed to indoctrinate. That is actually a command in the Gospels as well as the Pauline epistles. It's part of their purpose and mission. Of course I support this.

Colleges (non-private) are, primarily, supposed to teach students in order for them to obtain a marketable skill so they can earn a living.

No hypocrisy. I'm quite consistent. You, however, have a fundamental misunderstanding of the missions and responsibilities of the two institutions.

The flaw in your theory here is that most major corporations and government jobs, the ones that pay real money, won't even read through an entire resume or schedule an interview without seeing the proper university names and degrees. Those who want to make significant salaries need the proper pedigree from the proper schools. There's no way around that reality.

Most jobs in America are provided by small businesses, not major corporations. You're the one formulating a "theory", not me. Things are changing in regards to education. A bachelor's degree really means little any more, other than a gatekeeper. As a businessman and one who has hired over the years, a college degree is the least of my concerns. Some of the most accomplished individuals in America never completed college - Peter Jennings, Rush Limbaugh, Bill Gates, Greg Stemm - to name a few.

Moreover, technical skill are in high demand these days, often pay good wages and don't require a college degree. That is yesterday's reality (if it ever was one), not today's.

Not everyone in America is looking for a turn at the federal teat. Besides, that kind of money in NOVA and the DC area is consumed by the living expenses in the area. One can get by on less in other areas - without a taxpayer supported job.

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